But that effort tailed off for a good chunk of the second period as the Sharks were outshot 25-8 and outscored 3-2.

The Ducks' first goal of the second period, scored by Francois Beauchemin, came after constant cycling in San Jose's end with the Sharks players barely able to touch the puck.

The Sharks did touch the puck briefly over that minute-plus stretch before Beauchemin's goal.

Couture scored with 7:25 left in the second period to tie the game 2-2, but the Ducks took control shortly after.

Nick Bonino scored his 11th of the year, then assisted on Matt Beleskey's goal in which he stole the puck from Andrew Desjardins behind the Sharks net and won the battle to get to the front of the net.

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For the game, forward Tyler Kennedy was a minus-3, and Joe Thornton, Joe Pavelski, Dan Boyle and Marc-Edouard Vlasic were a combined minus-8.

In the first period, McLellan said, "We were on our toes, we were winning races. We were doing some of those things in the first. Where'd it go in the second? I guess that's the big question we have to ask our group.

"You have to look at yourself individually. I challenged them to do that on the plane on the way home.

"What do you do? What do you bring to the team? Moving forward, are you an energy guy? Do you hit? Do you block shots? Or do you just take up space? We have some guys right now that it's been going on for a little while, and they need to perform a little bit better."

The Sharks came into Tuesday riding a four-game win streak, which included a 3-1 home victory over the Ducks on Sunday. But the effort San Jose showed in that contest didn't make its way south, at least not during a game-deciding stretch in the second and third periods.

The Ducks, on the other hand, returned to the form that led to a franchise record 10-game winning streak before the loss to the Sharks. Anaheim now leads the Pacific Division with 63 points, seven points ahead of the second place Sharks.

"It's disappointing. We wanted to beat these guys in their building and we're going to have to at some point this year," Couture said. "We'll know what we did wrong, move on and get ready for the next one."

Goals by Ryan Getzlaf and Andrew Cogliano just 1:11 apart in the third period gave the Ducks a 6-2 lead with 17:35 to go.

Sharks goalie Antti Niemi shined at times as he faced 30 shots in the first two periods. But he was pulled after Getzlaf's goal, the third time this season that he's been removed from a game by McLellan.

Boyle scored a power-play goal in the second period for the Sharks, and Bracken Kearns scored for the second time in two games -- and second time in his NHL career -- in the third period.